Dell just came out with a new notebook computer that it is claiming is “the thinnest 15-inch PC on the planet”.
Advertisements sent by Dell via email and on their website in the U.S. look like this:
According to the London Guardian, however, the advertisement a reporter saw there in an unnamed UK newspaper, but did not include in his story, had a little asterisk after the claim. To our trusty mouse, asterisks are like cheese, so he hunted through newspaper after newspaper in the UK to find the suspect ad. And he found it! In an Internet exclusive, here it is (pictured below) and in a fuller view here .
The hard to read disclaimer says:
*MOUSE PRINT:
“Based on Dell internal analysis as at February 2011. Based on a thickness comparison (front and rear measurements) of other 15″ laptop PCs manufactured by HP, Acer, Toshiba, Asus, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony, MSI. No comparison made with Apple or other manufacturers not listed.”
Taking a page from the advertising tactics that we have reported on here, Dell omits computers in the comparison that might actually be thinner than their own. That is like Alamo claiming they are the biggest rental car company* (*if you don’t count Hertz and Avis).
In this case, they exclude Apple, among others. The Apple Macbook Pro is 0.95 inches thick, while the Dell laptop is actually a hair larger at 0.97 inches thick.
From a legal standpoint, Dell is using a hyper-technical definition of “PC”, which in many circles refers to an IBM compatible computer as opposed to a Mac. (Remember the “I’m a Mac and I’m a PC” commercials?) Where the company may have a problem is in its press release, email ads, and website, where it repeats the thinnest claims but does not include any disclaimers.
Does the 0.02-inch extra thickness of this Dell laptop really matter? Of course not. The problem is their use of a tricky claim to proclaim something that really isn’t true.
Thanks to Mark Young for the tip on this story.
This is another case of statistics being made to say anything you want them to say by modifying the sample group. While I don’t care for the practice, I have to say that this is also a case of Apple getting their own PC/Mac comparison used against them. And yes, as far as I’m concerned, a Mac is technically a PC.
I have no problem with this. Calling something a PC is not hyper-technical and in fact it is Apple that has slammed home the distinction for many years. By using the letters ‘PC’, they are inherently adding a disclaimer – just as they are when they say 15″
If anything it would seem to me it’s the writer of the article that’s being dishonest not Dell. As has been pointed out even Apple doesn’t call their computers PCs. It was the author that changed the claim from “thinnest PC” to “thinnest laptop”.
Thank you for the story. I am so tired of the twisted lies they put in their ads to make their product look good. I have no confidence in companies that have to lie to sell their products. I wish more companies would use positive marketing. Tell me why product is great and not how much better it is than everyone else’s products.
I have to agree with Art on this. People know what a PC is, and that an Apple computer is not a “PC”. Had Dell said “the thinnest laptop on the planet” or “the thinnest notebook computer on the planet”, then they would’ve been lying. But by using “PC”, they excluded Apple. And I wouldn’t say that even today the PC market and Apple market overlap all that much.